Auditors need to pitch again every 10 years September 27, 2012 BRITAIN’S biggest companies should put their audit contracts out to tender at least once a decade, the Financial Reporting Council said as it set out a major overhaul of its guidance today. The regulator also calls on boards to end the practice of trumpeting positive news in annual reports, while keeping other figures hidden among [...]
Bean counters cut the clutter September 26, 2012 ACCOUNTANTS have listened to a campaign to “cut clutter” from company reports, the Financial Reporting Council said yesterday. But the council remains worried about the reporting quality of some smaller listed firms, after reviewing 326 sets of accounts last year. The FRC is this week expected to call on companies to regularly put their audit [...]
Kloppers bags $6.6m as BHP ices exec wages September 18, 2012 THE BASE salary for miner BHP Billiton’s senior executives will be frozen for the next year, the FTSE 100 firm’s annual report revealed yesterday, as it battles to counteract falling iron ore prices. Chief executive Marius Kloppers received no short-term incentive as well as having his salary frozen, due to the $3.3bn (£2bn) shale gas [...]
What the other papers say this morning September 13, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Deutsche Bank urges rivals to share Deutsche Bank is seeking to convince rival investment banks to share markets and trading software in an effort collectively to lower costs for the financial industry. Law firms queue up for FSA panel City law and accountancy firms are jostling for the opportunity to earn bumper fees [...]
The glistening appeal of precious metals returns August 27, 2012 SENIOR MARKET STRATEGIST, GFT UP UNTIL last week, gold and silver – like a Parisian in August – appeared to have shut up shop for the summer. In contrast, equity markets had pushed higher in a low volume melt-up that brought the Dow and S&P 500 up to levels last seen in December 2007. Even [...]
Montague calls for changes to rented sector August 22, 2012 THE GOVERNMENT has today launched a long-awaited review of the private-rented housing market that calls for councils to waive affordable housing requirements on private rented schemes and for financial incentives to encourage investment into the sector. The review, conducted by 3i chairman Sir Adrian Montague, makes five recommendations to the government for encouraging large institutions [...]
Stansted considered a prize asset now it is finally being sold August 20, 2012 THERE are more than a handful of less than busy investment bankers celebrating the decision yesterday by Spanish group Ferrovial that it will sell Stansted Airport. The group is finally doing so after three years of wrangling with the competition authorities. The Spaniards have been trying long and hard to avoid a sale, even threatening [...]
PwC hit with RSM Tenon probe August 13, 2012 Professional services firm PwC faces an investigation from the accounting regulator over its handling of RSM Tenon Group’s 2010 and 2011 audits, the Financial Reporting Council announced yesterday. The Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board will probe the conduct of PwC and other members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) over their [...]
Women in the City are more than just voices for caution August 12, 2012 IT WAS once famously said that “whatever women do, they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good.” While I tend not to subscribe to clichés, when I started in the City in the late 1990s, the dearth of senior women suggested something was awry. Just 15 years later, we [...]
Ex CBI president quits carpet firm board after pay bust-up August 9, 2012 SIR Bryan Nicholson, former president of the CBI, resigned his directorship at carpet maker Victoria yesterday after he and two other non-executive directors lost the trust of the board by demanding a share of the proceeds of any sale of the firm. Victoria — which made the red carpet for last year’s Royal Wedding — [...]